Stupid Vista DRM

I’ve been really sceptical about all the naysayers that claim that Vista’s inbuilt DRM is somehow going to destroy the fabric of the universe. Or something.

But, when I come to try and watch a DVD on my new Vista Ultimate box in Media Center or Media Player I am greeted with the informative message that:

"Windows Media Player cannot play this DVD because there is a problem with digital copy protection between your DVD drive, decoder and video card. Try installing an updated driver for your Video card."

After quite a lot of digging it transpires that my LiteOn DVD drive (which is quite old) has RPC1 region free firmware, which is unacceptable to Vista. I have now had to take a retrograde step and enforce my DVD drive to obey regions just to get a legit DVD to play. Yes, obviously, I could use VLC or some other player but I don’t really see the point in spending money on Vista Ultimate if I can’t use all its features.

On top of this, my Casino Royale DVD subjected me to minutes of adverts and PIRACY IS WRONG messages that I couldn’t skip. I just bought the DVD, why am I getting lectured at! Why would anyone want to do things "the right way" I don’t know…

Bah.